Intermittent but persistent cough

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oldhat

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Hi all, my lovely 16 yr old mare has had an intermittent cough for the last month or so, she was coughing up thick white mucus and also had it coming out of her right nostril - especially after/on exercise, she has been on NAF respirator and having cough-eze, and sems to be much better, but today I took her for a short walk and on return the coughing started again - but only for a couple of times and again, the snot came down her nose. When she coughs, she obviously spits up bits of food. I am getting her teeth down next week to check her teeth aren't causing part of the prob, but after two vets advice, after 14 years of vaccinating against Flu, I stopped as wwe never go anywhere - happy hackers. Now I am worried that she might have got the virus. I realise the vet should be able to tell me more but after losing one mare to choke two years ago (amongst other things), seeing her coughing up food is filling me with dread. ANyone else having these problems this winter? The weather is so up and down, cold and hot etc., perhaps it's just because of that?
 
It sounds like a dust related condition rather than a virus, is she on soaked hay, dust free bedding etc. As is it ongoing a course of treatment to open her airways, such as ventipulmin , would be the way to go, over the counter things are ok but will rarely clear out more established problems.
 
Oldhat, you have my sympathy! Fred has had an intermittent cough for a couple of months now. It initially started with hay, then I started soaking it and that helped a bit, then I used NAF respirator alongside the soaking and it fixed it but it has come back in the last couple of weeks. I begrudgingly moved him onto haylage (which gives him the worst diarrhea ever but cured the cough). Now I have found some fairly dry haylage, which I soak and he is finally cured!!! Thank God!

I think with our dodgy summer, the quality of our hay up here is pretty bad. I'd move your horse onto haylage and pray for a better summer. Good luck, it's very frustrating, I hope your horse picks up soon.
 
My horse has the same cough you talk about.
I fed a bale of haylage last month and it cleared up so I've just started him today back on haylage and if he's better on it then hay I'll continue him on it for the rest of the winter.
 
Thanks for replies! She's always had wet hay as I can't give her haylage due to a laminitis scare years ago which was when I'd given her haylage! Very annoying. Our hay's not too bad thankfully but they are in a steading which also contains their hay so even if I vacuum the stables, they can't escape the dust. Now if I could afford another store... sigh! I probably will end up giving her ventapulmin or the like, I usually try other remedies first but this has gone on long enough poor lass. Mr Haffie in next door stable also had a bit of a cough today, I reckon this hot and cold damp weather is not a lot of help either.
 
Oldhat I too have sympathy for you. Apart from the cough my mare has the snot coming out her left nostril and coughs up mucus and has done for months. Started in April last year and vet put it down to a mild allergy. It wasnt affecting her performance so we left it. She fell ill in july and we are still combating this. but she since November has had snot and coughing up mucus. It is manly thick white stuff but occasionally you will get a day or 2 where its green. Vet has given us a few things to try and none have worked. for last 3 weeks she was put on a asthma inhaler but still have the mucus. The amount varies to tiny blobs to lumps the size of your hand. She has just had a head xray to see if they can see if there is fluid in her sinuses and await the phonecall once they back to office and have it all zoomed in etc to see what they can find.

Had one of the worst attacks on haylage which she was allergic too. But there is no pattern and you have days there is nothing.

dont think the weather is contributing to your horse. Do you have soaked hay? Has your horse been scoped? Hope you get to the bottom of things with yours.
 
Oscarwild - that sounds SO similar to our problem. We shall see what the vet has to say on tuesday, I reckon it could be anything - an allergy, a mild infection - she too has the mucus going green once in a while then white again, excercise definitely dislodges some of it. When she eats her tea, she usually has a cough also. Fingers crossed that we all get all our wonderful friends better asap!!
 
My boy has had a similar problem, intermittant cough, mainly when being exercised. He was put on woodchips and soaked hay a few months ago which really helped, then he started coughing again in Dec when his turnout was decreased for winter (yard policy). So I got him some Clarity from feedmark and that really helped, but a couple of weeks ago he was coughing again :( i got the vet out who was pretty sure it was a mild dust allergy, he gave him some anti b's (just in case it was an infection), and a course of ventipulmin. This has helped and he completely stopped coughing :) he has just finished the ventipulmin, so we will have to see what happens now.

The vet said that it was really important to manage the dust now, before the allergy gets worse, as he said it would get worse as George gets older, but the more you can minimise reactions the better the prognosis.

It is all a bit of a worry, and I hope you get to the bottom of the problem.
 
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